santorum finally endorsed the presumpive gop nominee, mitt romney. santorum sent out an e-mail at 11:00 p.m. last night. his endorsement came 900 words into the 1100 word e-mail writing, quote, it will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. governor romney will be that nominee. he has my endorsement. joining me now is hogan gidley, someone who is said to have the best southern accent in the business. hogan, great to see you. >> great to see you too, alex. thanks for the time. i always love the sarcasm to start off the show. >> we wouldn't have it any other way, sir. let's talk about this endorsement, if that's what we can call it. you're a man familiar with optics. the optics of this are not really that good. why bother endorsing in the middle of the night? >> well, you know, i wouldn't say -- he didn't endorse in the middle of the night. i talked to some santorum

advisors a little earlier today. they said, look, we wanted to be on the top of everyone's inbox when they woke up this morning. they released it late last night because rick didn't get done editing it until late last ni. t i don't want to go down this road of a strategical move to push it on and push it off and do it in the dead of night. from what i understand, he just wanted to release it when he got done editing it. obviously, it's worked because y'all have been talking about it all morning. he endorsed the governor. they had a great meeting last week, obviously, as you read. it came far down into the e-mail, but that makes sense. you wouldn't put it in the top line because then everyone would tweet that and not read the rest. i think he wanted to bury the lead so you could get to the actual endorsement. >> setting aside the word count, there are 38 mentions of i, me,

or my. it ends with, very soon we will be making a very big announ announceme announcement, and i will be asking you to join forces to keep up the fight together. that seems more santorum centric rather than romney centric. would you agree? >> i don't know. i mean, look, i think rick wanted to get off his chest and let people know what his campaign was about to remind them and let hthem know he talkd about romney with those things one on one. they had a candid conversation, as the e-mail outlined. there were many to understand he sat down with the governor and had this candid conversation. the governor agreed a lot with what rick had to say, and they agree with each other on moving forward and pushing a conservative agenda, including the tea party and making sure they were representative in the romney campaign. i think his supporters deserve to know what rick thought about that meeting. i think that's what the e-mail did. >> i want to open it up to our talented panel here. steve, when we talk about

endorsements and how much they matter, how much does an endorsement for rick santorum matter for mitt romney, who has a hard time gathering the support of conservatives? >> it's a little more significant right now because romney's had issues with the republican base and sort of the white evangelical christians. we've seen a lot of these people coming out in the last few weeks. i think it's been less and less of an issue of romney unifying the right. i read this as more in the dying days of his campaign, i notice rick santorum kept talking about ronald reagan in the example of 1976 when ronald reagan ran as the conservative candidate against jernld ford. failed just short. endorsed him kind of and information there to say i told you so when it was over. when i see that e-mail after that, i kind of think that's what santorum thinks he's channelling here. >> hogan, i got to ask, do you think that senator santorum is going to have a speaking spot in

tampa come time for the convention? >> i'm not sure. i mean -- from what i understand, that was not discussed at all. the romney campaign has made no overture to senator santorum about coming out on the trail with him or a speaking slide in tampa. that's not really rick's deal. he's not a quid pro quo kind of guy. he says, this is the agenda i'm for. i hope you sign on with it. it's not, you give me this so i can give you that. that's not the kind of guy he is. >> it will be real interesting to see in terms of retiring campaign debt, whether that changes. whether his appearances on the campaign trail are more enthusiastic endorsement would in fact help his pocketbook. that's a long-term interest of his. if he's looking down the road four years, he wants to retire that debt and move ahead. it's not so much the endorsement. >> but there's no debt. >> he's out of the woods with that. >> hogan is making the point there's no debt. we have word this morning that the red, white, and blue group

is splitting up. >> there is a political debt, it seems to me. you're looking at a republican party whose fate and future is unclear. if it loses the implosion within the party will be similar to go goldwater's defeat in 1964. with the base that conservative base rick santorum brings to the party, will make it very difficult for mitt romney to do the etch-a-sketch moments. you saw it with equal pay where mitt romney wants to move closer to where the center of this country is, yet the social base erupted. you'll see that again and again. it will be a political debt. >> to that point, there's the mention of the primary issues for rick santorum, which is a pro-family agenda, the manufacturing tx credit, the abortion credit, and gay marriage, which we should discuss right now.

hogan, did the senator miss a moment to really sort of put mitt romney in the hot seat -- or not put him on the hot seat, but cement his current position as someone who's against gay marriage and really hold his feet to the fire on that by putting out a letter rather than making this sort of speech or some sort of address? >> no, i don't think so. i mean, i think the letter did what it was supposed to do. that's just to try to get those conservative folks who as y'all mentioned a second ago that romney hasn't had the best track record with to coaless behind somebody now. obviously that issue is on the ballot in north carolina today. this isn't about holding mitt romney's feet to the fire. it's about defeating barack obama. at this point, with the comments that joe biden made over the weekend, obviously, i think that's going to fall more on the president's plate and could be a problem for him more so than mitt romney in general. >> and let's talk about that. i want to play a little bit of montage from jay carney yesterday in the white house

press briefing skating, skirting, dancing over the issue of gay marriage. let's take a look at that. >> he, as you know, said that his views on this were evolving, and i don't have an update for you on that. he's simply saying, i have nothing new for you on that. his position is what it was. i don't have an update to provide you on the president's position. it is what it was. i just don't have anything more to give to you on the issue of the president's views. it is as it was, yes. >> richard wolf, that wasn't even all of it. there are more i don't have anything else to give yous. >> about as convincing as a rick santorum endorse m. he's evolved from the sea to amphibian stage and stuck there. it hasn't changed. i think if you look a at what the vice president said, he was dancing around it too. i know everyone's reported it as the vice president comes out for gay marriage. not quite. the bigger question, i think, is the relationship with the community, with the people who

support the president, and how much they're disgruntled with him and why they're disgruntled with him, especially when he has a pretty good record. if you think, "don't ask, don't tell." he staked a lot of political capital to get this done. they really want him to come out on, no pun intended, on gay marriage and make exsplis sit. that's not what he's prepared to do at this point. >> and that's a political calculation. >> absolutely. >> we're talking about team obama's putting $25 million into advertising in nine key swing states, virginia, pennsylvania, north carolina. all states that could sort of threatn to n ten to go the oth. i think for those on the left, there's some concern that, look, this is no longer even necessarily an issue in terms of policy, but it's about the president's character in terms of which battles he's ready to find. >> i fundamentally believe that

freedom and equality in this country has come about from people organized, sustained organizing and movements. that is where we have seen the movement on gay rights, on gay marriage. this president is someone who, like many presidents, franklin roosevelt, needs to be moved and pushed. to me, it's ironic because we talk a lot about the influence of money and politics, pushing politiiticians to take stances. it would be logical at this moment because of the support in this party. also, steve wrote a really interesting piece a few weeks ago about democrats just support common sense gun rights. the republicans are going to win on that issue in many ways. if we didn't have a crazy political system where this election has come down to nine battleground states, 52% of americans -- >> right. >> a majority of independents support legalizing gay marriage. somewhere in there is the fight for freedom that needs to go on.

the fact that the entire obama cabinet may come out for gay marriage before he does. >> sometimes the followers must lead until the leaders follow. this is historic inevitability. >> the interesting thing is, "don't ask, don't tell" was on the top of the wish list for two, three decades. both when it came in and undoing it, and he gets absolutely no credit for it whatsoever. >> i think he gets credit. >> minimal credit. >> he should get credit. >> the president will certainly be reminding americans of that. the president at this moment is in albany where he will be speaking about economic measures. hogan, we have to say good-bye to you, sir. thank you for joining us. always a pleasure. >> thank you much. >> coming up, new details on the terrorist bombing plot foiled by the cia. what the white house is saying or not saying about suspect behind it. that's next on "now." [ male announcer ] this is corporate caterers, miami, florida.

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do we have the alleged bomber in custody? >> we don't have to worry about the ied or the would-be bomber. >> has he been killed? >> i'm not going to go into any of the operatal details, again. i think the american people should feel confident that this device and the bomber that would use it are no longer a threat to the american public. >> that was white house chief counterterrorism advisor john brennan speaking on "the today" show this morning. brennan would not say whether the would-be suicide bomber is in custody or dead.

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, who has been covering this story for us, joins us now from washington. pete, good to see you. >> good to see you. i think the reason the white house doesn't want to get into this is because it was an intelligence coo. there was a source inside yemen where the bomb was built. that source eventually left yem within the bomb. there are indications the source was the suicide bomber himself. although, we don't know that for certain. in any event, a remarkable story. pass for the device w the u.s. has had it for about a week. it's at the fbi crime lab just outside washington in virginia. fundamentally, it's basically the same thing has was used in 2009 by the man who tried to bomb a plane coming into detroit. it had no metal parts. neither did that one in 2009. in terms of security challenge at the airport, it doesn't present anything particularly new. but it does show that al qaeda

is trying again, and this device was supposedly intended to work better, alex. >> certainly another feather in the cap for the administration on the heels of discussion about, i wouldn't say controversy, but widespread analysis of the administration's handling of osama bin laden. >> well, certainly for the intelligence community worldwide. repeated efforts by the united states to get cooperation from other nations to gather intelligence on what's considered to be the number one threat that's al qaeda in yemen. >> nb c's pete williams. thank you, sir, for the intel. >> you bet. >> richard, you know, when we talk about counterterrorism policy and this administration, there was an interesting piece in reuters today talking about how technology and drones, which is another issue entirely, have made this quote, unquote, war different from any other. if the administration has pursuing aggressively, terrorists, a lot of these measures in terms of technology were put in place by, in fact, the bush administration. >> you know, that's a pretty

simplistic view. i hear it a lot, especially from people in the bush administration. they say, you know, this is really our success. we got bin laden because we used these harsh interrogation techniques that normal people call torture. if pete's reporting proves to be the case, this is human sources rather than the giant te technological sweep the bush administration tried to use and deploy. that included massive eavesdropping and the trolling through people at airports, which we still have to do today. the single focus of this administration from people like john brennan and the president that meant this has been focused much more precisely on al qaeda's core leadership. that's a policy decision. that's what's different about this administration because they weren't fighting years in iraq. >> and it's a law enforcement approach. there's that big controversy between the military approach and law enforcement, which is

investigation, intelligence, covert work. you do that with small numbers without doing the kind of tactics and using the -- >> i don't know that anybody is saying that water boarding led us to capture this terror suspect in yemen. >> there are people who are out there, again, defentding the use of torture. >> the point i'm making it you would not be able to track these individuals without what the reuters piece calls electronic exhaust, which is technology in use. >> but katherine makes an important point. i think we still live in the shadow of the monumental crime of 9/11. instead of police work, of intelligent policing and homeland security, the cost of this country of two land wars, 50,000 soldiers killed, millions of pakistanis, iraqis, afghanis. are we more secure? richard talks about the drones. we are now at a point where there needs to be a debate in

this country about -- >> the use of drones. >> the almost per miscuous use of drones. it is not clear that we're seeing the so-called surgical strikes. we're seeing attacks on families. we're seeing attacks on those who are civilians. >> and by 2015, the faa is clearing air space for those here. >> but the question of upholding the very values we proclaim to live by in the fight against terror, which should never have been a war, is a very important one for this country to discuss and hold accountable to congress, which has refused to stand up for the rights it has under the war powers resolution. >> to katrina's point, why hasn't there been bigger debate, especially on the left, about the use of drones and the issue of civil libertieies and beyond? >> i think there has been. i think there has been debate. i think there has been decent on the left. i think the thing, at this point, that has surprised a lot of people on the left and a lot of critics of the administration is that the appetite within the

democratic party isn't as broad for this debate as they expected and as they thought. a lot of the sort of the objections to george w. bush's national security policies, when you get down to it from the left, a lot of it came from people who just didn't like george w. bush. they were being good democrats. when you have your own president in there, you stop worrying about it and caring about it. >> you have to care about the issues. there's a transpartisan coalition, small, but emerging to ask tough questions that need to be asked. >> the other notable thing about this, of course, is that al qaeda and yemen is still incredibly active and poses our most serious threat in terms of terrorist networks. after the break, we will look at the latest in ugly attacks on the campaign trail and on the air waves. that's next on "now." [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest

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we have a president right now that is operating outside the structure of our constitution. i want to know -- yeah, i do agree he should be tried for treason. but i want to know what you're going to be able to do to help restore balance between the three branches of government. >> i happen to believe that the constitution was not this brilliant, probably inspired. >> that was mitt romney pointedly bypassing an accusation that the president is guilty of treason. a reporter directly asked romney if he should be tried for treason. he said, no, of course not. katherine, we have talked about the moments that have been offered to romney on a platter to sort of plant a flag in the ground and say, look, this is wrong, anned i will not abide b did. do you think that's one of the moments? >> yes, it is.

john mccain got so much political capital when he stood down a woman who was calling obama a muslim. political capital on the right and the left. i think it makes a lot of people who are true patriots, whatever their political persuasion, it makes their skin crawl when our president is being accused of something like that, and the republican nominee is unwilling to stand up. >> obama spokeswoman liz smith yesterday said, time after time in this campaign, romney has had the opportunity to show he has the fortitude to stand up to hateful and over the line rhetoric. time after time, he's failed to do so. if this is the leadership he's shown on the campaign trail, what can the american people expect of him as commander in chief? i will say, we're talking about the nastiness of this campaign. a democratic campaign strategist says in the new york times, right now before everyone gets to know him, it's the time for obama to push romney face down in the dirt. you can't let romney go before the voters looking clean.

what do you think of that, steve? >> yes, romney should probably have said something, should have made a stand at this event yesterday. but i really -- i got to say, thinking ahead to the next six months and thinking back to the last campaign and modern politics in general, i hate this kind of thing. i hate when you have random audience members get up and everyone has to repudiate it. i know we're talking about the john mccain example from 2008 and saying this is how it should be done. remember, the john mccain 2008 example came after he flubbed a moment like this earlier in the process. and let's see if romney learns. i think there's an issue with what is it in the broader republican message that stirs this kind of sentiment that you see in these audiences? i really hate when we get into every time somebody says something a little crazy, everybody's got to go crazy repudiating it. >> we've seen nasty campaigns before in this country. what's new, though, i think, is the warp speed. the warp speed of, quote, winning the morning. or the warp speed of being out

there first with allegations. you know, there's the candidates. a lot of people, especially in these swing states because of the december mags of local news, are going to be getting their news this election from attack ads. if not from attack ads, the media. i don't hold you accountable, but a media that does false equivalents. someone wrote last week in the washington post that the role of journalists right now is not just to do the unfiltered balance. it's to hold politicians to account for the lies they tell. part of this treason stuff is part of the same reason that we have media disinformation. we don't need, at this perilous time in our country, to turn on our precious air broadcast systems and watch not just on fox, but on cnn last night moore birther talk. that feeds the sense that, that feeds what that woman just asked

about. is our president guilty of treason? >> we talk about the calculations and so on and so forth. this is not a herculean endeavor. all he had to say is the president is not guilty of treason. do i agree with his economic policies? no. it's not that hoarard. that's an interesting thing about mitt romney. >> it's not just him. >> it's an ethical debate. the failure to act is often as critical as inappropriate action. >> indeed, it is, katherine. coming up, as primary voters head to the polls today in indiana, the tea party threatens to unseat the establishment. could it be a sign of things to come? we'll discuss next. this is delicious okay... is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic.

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i mean, some can't get along without social security, every penny of it. i guess he wants to be as opposite as he can believing that will get him votes. the scary thing is what if it does? heaven help us because mmourdoc won't. >> that was a new ad by indiana state senator dick lugar. one recent poll showed lugar trailing by ten points. before we get to that race, some breaking news. the senate has rejected a procedural motion to move forward on the bill to move the student loan interest. both parties have said they don't want this to happen, but their disagreement comes down to one thing, how to pay for it. so congress still isn't functioning. let's talk about the dynamics in congress a little bit.

we've talked about the exodus of moderates from house and senate. arnold schwarzenegger saying, in the current climate, the extreme right wing of the party is targeting anyone. peggy noonan saying the senate needs grown-ups. the entire american government. katherine, what's going on? >> just go down the list. we're talking about campaign financer or the student loan comment. the rules in the senate are done so you need 60 votes to get something out of committee. that's ludicrous. all these driven by far right and rarely, these days, left idiologs. unless you combat those rule changes to create that fairer and more level playing field on

which we can have great id yoe logical battles, then you might as well throw our constitutional republic out the window. >> you know, i think a lot of people share that sentiment. yet, the republican party, or its most active wing, especially in the house, has doubled down on a tactic of, you know, championing those who are furthest right. the mourdock-lugar race -- >> that's winning at expense of the republic. >> it's also winning at expense of their own party. mourdoch is currently tied in the latest polls. dick lugar is 20 points ahead. this is suicidal. the irony is the great tactician and strategist for the republicans wasn't, hasn't been eric cantor. it's mitch mcconnell. he's embraced this tea party spirit, and it will deny him, if this continues this way, it will deny him the senate majority position. indiana should not be in the democrat's camp.

it likely will be. >> it's the delaware race. christine o'donnell being championed -- >> i would say it's closer to pennsylvania. this is still a very winnable race for the republicans. i think republicans look at example of pennsylvania and they say, we could have kept spector. we could have kept the seat in our hands, but we'd have spector. we took a chance. it was a closer race than. would have been. now we have a guy who's going to vote with us on everything. i think they look at indiana and say the same thing. it's not so much institutional about senate and the congress. it's of the power of the base of each party to insist on absolute purity in these primaries. you look at lugar and the other endangered -- >> they're not in control though. they're not deciding who's in the primaries. the reason mitt romney is pandering -- >> they decide who wins the primaries. >> it's not the leaders of this party. the leaders of the party are doing what mitt romney did with the woman who stood up.

they're pandering. they're living in fear. >> they're living in fear of primaries. >> there's not a tactical decision the voters are making here. the base of the party is going with its gut, and the leaders, if you looked at the numbers, there's no rational way you would pick these people. they're not saying, we want someone to vote with us 100% of the time. >> sure they are. dick lugar had a reputation for being, you know, not a liberal, not moderate, but more accommodating. they're saying no compromise. that's the message. >> the party didn't go after bob bennett. it was the hard right that went after him because he dared to compromise. it wasn't the old line republican party that said we're throwing heez guys out. >> no, absolutely not. >> but you do have -- i agree with what katherine said about the procedural obstructionism we're seeing in congress. but i would disagree about the democratic party. i think the democratic party is what a classic party is. it's a coalition of cats.

>> wildcats. >> it's been captured by an extreme right wing. but where this leads this country, because we're a poor country and have only two major political parties, if you don't have vibrant debate within those two parties, i do think you do within the democratic party. i think there are a lot of sent riss in the democratic party. do i love them? i'm not into it. the one thing i do think the republicans have done to the detriment of this country is they have successfully obstructed the work of government. we, the people, so that millions of people -- look at congress. they now have a lower rating than the communist party of russia. it degrades the role of government in our life. we need an active, effective government to expand opportunity and to tackle inequality and create jobs. the republicans have degraded that possibility. >> the interesting sort of counterpoint to that, of course, is the warren brown race in

massachusetts. there you have -- elizabeth warren, the model of a classic liberal. you have scott brown who's, quote, unquote, a moderate or self-proclaimed moderate. i think a lot of people don't know how that race is going to play out. >> classic liberal. i'm sort of surprised. this is an oklahoma girl. i know these kids. i grew up in texas. >> do you have to adopt that accent? >> you got to talk right. folks at home know i'm here. you know, she's someone who -- i mean, her father sort of, you know, blue-collar work. they lost a home. >> i think liberals and progressives can be a working class from the middle of the country. >> i don't see her voice. i don't hear her positions as classically liberal. >> i think that's a very important point because that's what separates this race, even those it's massachusetts, this race was not really going to be winnable for democrats until elizabeth warren came along. all of the top prospects in

massachusetts, the sort of traditional massachusetts libera liberals, took a pass and were losing. what elizabeth warren is able to do is communicate ideas in a digestible way. very rare. >> and not do it as left versus right but as right versus wrong and families versus the banks. >> so i should have said classic progressive. at any rate, we'll be watching that race, as of course we'll be watching the dick lugar race in indiana tonight. after the break, they're just not that into you. we'll tackle president obama's not so great relationship with wall street next on "now." ♪ [ male announcer ] want your weeds to hit the road? hit 'em, with roundup extended control. one application kills weeds, and stops new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day.

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do is praise the top banks. the one-time love affair between the president and wall street bankers has appeared to come to an end, a very bitter, nasty end. i will quote the "new york times" magazine. a great story on how obama has courted wall street or tried to. an unnamed democrat planning one of the fundraisers says, i think it's an unfixable relationship. they hate him. they really, really do. they hate all the democrats. richard, what do you make of that? >> such delicate little wall flowers, those people on wall street. in spite of the vast and obnoxious wealth they have created for themselves out of not very much, in spite of the fact the stock market has doubled, they are so offended because he once called them fat cats. really, his rhetoric was so weak, and they are so easily offended. they are so thin skinned. it's just immature, frankly. for people who want to play

politics and say, we have a voice in national politics because we give all this money, they need to live with the rough and tumble a bit. this president hasn't even been rough with them. the tea party and the republican party have been just as vociferous against them in public with the rhetoric. although, in private, they've managed to push in all the exemptions and loopholes they can into what everyone thought and everyone supported as wall street reform. >> okay. dodd frank is certainly in the minds of many. gumming up the system. listen, this is perhaps a logic that goes into the very real statistic that according to the center for responsive politics as of the end of the february, of the nearly $33 million wall street has contributed to the 2012 presidential race so far, 92% has gone to the gop. 72% has gone to romney. >> go back and read what wall street was saying when teddy roosevelt with the sherman eddy

trust. you will hear this same doom, gloom cry. the world will end. in fact, we know what happened. that's what's going on. they have won across the board. they are going to push that to the most extreme until somebody has the fortitude to finally stand up and say, we need a balance here. >> there was a measure of insight into mitt romney in the "new york times" magazine this past sunday. it was one of his close friends. >> a former colleague. >> but he basically made the argument that we need more inequality in this country. >> that income inequality is good for the country. >> and more wealth for few. i agree with richard. wall street's doing very well. it's made out like banksters. i don't think it's the words. i really do believe something you said, because i do think they don't want to -- they don't want regulation. they want to keep taxes low, low, low. these are basic, primal factors.

i do think that the obama white house has gotten it all the wrong ways because they're now getting hit by wall street. they're not getting the contributions, which is a good thing. at the same time, the obama administration didn't take the steps it might have taken to really shrink the big banks for the sake of the economy, to do things that would make these masters of the universe serve -- >> let me interrupt. you're looking at former governor mitt romney speaking in lansing, michigan, right now. when we talk about the relationship that romney has to wall street versus obama and his relationship with wall street, i think it's now beyond policy. i think certainly the buffett rule and the talk of income and equality, which is an important conversation we need to have in this country. it's not even about that. it's a personal dislike for the president that runs deep. i think that those numbers bear that out. >> the interesting thing to me is if you can think back about six months, some of the biggest energy behind the effort to

draft chris christie into the republican race as an alternative came from wall street. it came from these new york money guys. how i read that at the time was they don't like obama. they feel personally offended by obama, but they recognize, to a certain degree, the political po toxicity of being associated with wall street. they saw romney might have some issues. >> buecause he appeared in a photograph with dollar bills coming out of his suit. >> that's how i always read that. >> the question katrina raises is very real. why didn't the president take tougher action against the banks when he could have? afterall, he's been a pretty bad socialist. could have broken them up, taken them over. didn't do anything. why not? the answer is because he was concerned about banks failing. he actually was concerned about protecting the banks. we didn't know they would come back so quickly. the fact they rebounded quickly, not least because of cheap money from the federal reserve, not

least because of bailouts through t.a.r.p., was his problem. so they are hating him because he actually ensured their surviv survival. there's a hos time dependency. >> richard, i will interject and say, look, the president -- no one has gone to jail for the worst financial meltdown since the great depression. if you talk about really taking the banks to task, the ag in new york has been leading that fight. the white house is, in that case, been a couple steps behind him. in fact, that is true leadership. >> this is another case of where you need a movement behind someone like eric. he hasn't been given the resources he needs. you know, it's not just about v vengeance. it's also about ensuring that people have faith in the legal system to do justice. not just for the rich and powerful, but for all people in this country. >> indeed, it is. coming up, arizona governor jan brewer slashes funtding for women's health care. we'll take a look at that next in "what now."

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easy label, right? but that label can lead to prejudice and discrimination, and we don't want to go there. so let's try to see people for who they really are.

you can help create a more united states. the more you know. welcome back. time for "what now." arizona governor jan brewer has signed a bill that cuts state funding for planned parenthood. katherine, this is, of course, a trend in states across the country. texas. the state has appealed an injunction stopping the funding. the hearing is set for the first week of june. similar bans are facing legal challenges in indiana, kansas, and carolina. >> people have to understand that arizona's situation, there's no abortion funding going on there. it is completely segregated. they're simply saying, we're going to kill the entire organization, even if you have completely removed the objectional abortions as a political act and what that does to women is an abomination. >> thousands of women will go

without basic health care. >> you've spoken out about this on the show, alex. this is basic health care for women. i think here we see a real -- you know, you see a republican party willing to defund a group that has served one in six women in this country. to me, that's -- there's a moral issue there. it's a sense of what kind of country you want to live in. we're seeing this across the states and in texas. the idea of limited government, it's kind of a farce when you think about them talking about limited government and intruding to deeply into the fate and state of women's health. >> richard, is it a winning strategy? this keeps the issue of the war on women alive. every time a state does this -- scott walker is now dancing around it. it keeps alive a very good talking point for the democrats, if you ask me. >> within the republican party, it may be winning. but that's a very small universe of people. so if you're speaking for mitt

romney and how he's got to claw back some of the deficit he's now got with women voters with independence, this makes no sense. by the way, the irony of them doing it in the name of family values is also obscene. this is women's health. it's basic health services. i don't think it works on a policy level. i don't think it works on values. just within this strange dynamic of the republican party at this time -- look, if acorn was still alive, they'd still be trying to shut it down. >> the repercussions of them shutting down planned parenthood and strangle the organization -- >> it becomes a political move at the expense of women's health and families. you're so right. it's not just women. women are daughters, mothers. they're part of a family unit. >> and they're wives. >> this speaks to what we were talking about in the last segment about how the base of

the parties grab control of this process and insists on this kind of agenda. this is something that romney has to deal with in the fall where you're going to have eruptions at the state level where these legislators elected who are still fearful of primary challenges are going to continue doing this stuff. romney is going to have to be asked over and over, what do you think of this, what do you think of that? >> it keeps it alive. thanks again. that's all for now. see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific. until then, you can find us at facebo facebook.com/nowwithalex. a andrea mitchell reports is next. >> thanks, alex. lugar's land stand in indiana and the fight for gay marriage goes up for a vote in north carolina. we're covering all of today's action. and you may have missed rick santorum's big endorsement. we'll discuss that with romney

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[ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. >> no one's ever doubted i mean what i say. the problem is i sometimes say all that i mean. [ laughter ] >> and while you were sleeping, mitt romney finally gets rick santorum's endorszment, but where's the love? santorum does find time for leno today while romney solos in michigan. maybe romney can explain why he didn't challenge this woman in ohio yesterday. >> we have a president right now that is operating outside the structure of our constitution. i want to know -- yeah, i do agree he should be tried for treason. >> hoosier senator? dick lugar fights for his politica